


(not up for being) a victim of love

by silverfoxflower



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Jealousy, Love Triangles, M/M, Misunderstandings, Multi, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pre-OT3, everybody is a moron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:07:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28335111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverfoxflower/pseuds/silverfoxflower
Summary: Three points of a triangle - the support less than stable and the tip less than sharp.
Relationships: Megaera/Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 119
Collections: Yuletide Madness 2020





	(not up for being) a victim of love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yevie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yevie/gifts).



> Please enjoy this treat!! These three are MORONS.

Thanatos had separated many lovers with the cruel blade of his scythe. He had heard their weeping and laments, but knew little sympathy. They would be together soon, he thought, and for eternity. If he understood the pain of separation it was only on a level detached. Such was the passions of mortals, he thought.

Then Zagreus decided to leave his father's realm, and Thanatos had felt the ground fall from his feet. 

"Really, Zagreus?" Thanatos asked, his voice brittle with humor. "Not even a goodbye? So eager to leave the one who mothered you as her own?" 

"I'm sorry, Than," Zagreus said quietly. "There was ... there was no time. I'll tell you about it when I can." 

Thanatos ducked his chin towards his chest, smiling ruefully. "You told Meg, at least?" Perhaps there was a touch of desperation in his tone. If Zagreus's attachment to Meg was what would make him stay, then he would take it. 

"I hardly needed to," Zagreus said dryly, "she was waiting for me in Tartarus." 

Thanatos frowned, aggrieved. If even Meg mattered so little in the scheme of his plans ...

He had known since they were all very young. Since Zagreus had first pulled Megaera's hair in his childish fist, craving her attention, and she had left her mark, a bright scratch, on his cheek. And still Zagreus continued chasing her, and Thanatos thought the he could understand the compulsion. He would never be the recipient of Zagreus's attention, but if it was Meg, if it meant that he could stay at their side, then he was content. 

That's what he thought, that's what he _thought_ , but then Zagreus decided to leave and ruin the delicate structure of Thanatos's self-delusions. That he wasn't selfish. That he didn't want Zagreus's hands and mouth and heart. That he could remain removed as he always had been. Silent in his yearning. 

"Go, Zagreus," Thanatos said woodenly. "The rest of us will just deal with the mess you leave behind."

"That's not fair, Thanatos," Zagreus pressed his lips together. He stood with the Stygian sword in his hand, its blade slick with blood. Some of it Megaera's. 

What wasn't fair, Thanatos thought, was that they all had been raised to wield sharp things, and none of them knew how to knit back what had been cut asunder. 

\--

What she and Zagreus had was left in the sweat of his bedsheets, dissipated with the heat of their shared bodies. She left her marks in the small of his back, the vulnerable flesh at the top of his thighs. Marks that could be covered with his loosely-clasped chiton, if he so chose. 

"Whatever this is between the two of us," she said, tugging Zagreus's head back to expose the line of his neck, forcing his back into a deep arch. "It doesn't leave this room, understand?" 

And he had agreed, because she held him in her hand, and he would have said anything for her to take him apart. 

In all, Zagreus obeyed her request. He continued his reckless, endless journeys to the surface and she performed the duties assigned to her. When they fought, it was with no hesitation, no quarter, tearing into each other's flesh with the same frenzy they occupied in love-making. No soft words, no tender declarations. 

Perhaps, in the lounge, a sly smile and some sharing of contraband. 

It was all she could handle, for now. 

"... I don't know ... well, I don't know much, Than." Zagreus's voice, at the end of the corridor. The hall beyond the administrative chambers was all but abandoned, but his voice carried. Megaera meant to move through without hearing any more, but the uncharacteristic hesitation in Zagreus's tone made her still. 

"You don't need to say more, Zagreus," Thanatos said. To anyone else, his voice would have sounded clipped. Cold. She knew that he was pleading. 

The soft intake of breath. "I ... care for you, Thanatos. You know I-" 

A shade drifted across the arch of Megaera's foot, startling her. When she stepped forward, the eyes of both men were on her. Thanatos's expression was stricken, Zagreus's, surprised. 

"I need to go," Thanatos said swiftly, and vanished with a pulse of darkness. 

Megaera saw the uncertainty flash over Zagreus's expression. The stiff set of his shoulders. So when he turned to her with a smile, she believed none of it. 

"I'm sorry for interrupting," she said quietly. 

"It wasn't anything important," Zagreus said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

Megaera thought of Thanatos's face, and a sudden fury filled her chest. "Whatever you did, you need to fix this." 

"Why do you think _I_ did something?" Zagreus asked, offended. 

Megaera shook her head, struggling to verbalize how deeply she knew of Thanatos's pain, so much that she felt an answering tightness in her own heart. Whatever she and Zagreus had ...

Whatever they had did not live where they stood now.

\--

It hurt. 

The pounding that Asterius had given him, sure, that _sucked_. But Zagreus had been ... off all day. Distracted. He wondered, seriously, if he had gotten on the wrong side of one of Aphrodite's arrows. Whatever it was, it caused Zagreus to run head-long into Asterius's blade. Perhaps, he thought, it had started when Thanatos had popped up to help him, then pulled one of his disappearing acts before Zagreus could say anything.

Why did everyone always treat him like the bad guy when he still didn't know what he did? 

With a grunt, Zagreus shook the blood of the Styx from his hair, noticing that Hypnos was not at his post. No one announced him as he jogged in, save for a muttered comment from his father. The silence was peaceful, though a little lonely. 

Wandering into the lounge, Zagreus saw the rare sight of Thanatos and Megaera sharing a table. They were bent close, speaking warmly. They were a good fit, Zagreus realized. Ambitious and intense. It had been this way since they were little ... the rambunctious young prince, and his two beleaguered young bodyguards. How mature they were, how diligent. Zagreus thought that they had all grown close, but perhaps Thanatos and Megaera shared something on a level he couldn't penetrate. 

Thanatos said something dryly, and Megaera laughed, pressing her forehead briefly against Thanatos's shoulder. Had he ever made her laugh like that? Had Thanatos ever turned to him with such a soft expression? 

He was happy for them, Zagreus decided. They were good for each other. The next time he saw one or both, he would congratulate them with a bright smile. 

But dear Aphrodite. It _hurt_.

**Author's Note:**

> my [tumblr](https://greyduckgreygoose.tumblr.com/tagged/myfic)


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